Australians born overseas were more likely to live in major urban areas, with half of all migrants living in Sydney or Melbourne according to the latest Australian Social Trends (AST) article released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

With one in four Australians born overseas, the AST article looks at the 2011 Census of Population and Housing to see where people live by country of birth.

ABS Assistant Director of Social and Progress Reporting, Ms Guinevere Hunt, said that in all capital cities except for Hobart and Darwin, more than half the CBD residents were born overseas.

"We found that the suburbs with the highest proportion of people born overseas included Haymarket in Sydney, Clayton in Melbourne, Robertson in Brisbane, Regency Park in Adelaide, and Northbridge in Perth.

"Suburbs near universities also have high proportions of migrants," said Ms Hunt.

The largest migrant group in Australia are people born in the United Kingdom (UK), followed by people born in New Zealand, China and India. This has changed from 2001 when the largest migrant groups were from UK, New Zealand, Italy and Vietnam.

"In Sydney, two in five residents of Harris Park were born in India, and Hurstville had the highest proportion of people born in China. In Melbourne, one in four people living in Sunshine North was born in Vietnam, and in Perth, two in five residents of Jindalee were born in the UK," said Ms Hunt.

AST articles are freely available online at www.abs.gov.au/socialtrends

Media note

When reporting ABS data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.